J Pike

Should we expect a record buck harvest in PA. this year? I mean after all we have 2 full years of AR. under our belt and according to Alt and the PGC. our herd is getting larger every year, and the 2003 deer harvest was significantly lower last year due to ( what was it? oh yeh, thats it!) bad weather and a poor mast crop. If Alt's claims about the size of our herd and how many additional bucks we have carried over the past 2 seasons are true, I dont see how we cant demolish the previous highest buck harvest in a single hunting season!! What do you guys think? Pike

BarnesX.308

I think a lot of it has to do with the weather. Will it be too hot, too cold, raining, windy, an ice storm knocks visibility down to 2 feet in the woods, crusty snow makes it too loud to walk, dense fog??? If the weather is good, there should be a good number of deer killed. I don't think it will beat any records, though.

deaddeer

Alt blamed the weather for the low buck harvest in 2003, but we harvested 86% of the 80 K buck that we carried over from 2002. If we could harvest 86% of the older smarter buck, why couldn't we harvest the noramal number of 1.5 buck? Could it be there were alot fewer 1.5 buck due to the harvest of 77K BB in 2002?

deaddeer

Alt blamed the weather for the low buck harvest in 2003, but we harvested 86% of the 80 K buck that we carried over from 2002. If we could harvest 86% of the older smarter buck, why couldn't we harvest the noramal number of 1.5 buck? Could it be there were alot fewer 1.5 buck due to the harvest of 77K BB in 2002?

muzzyman88

Personally.....anyone thinking we are going to see more and more large racked bucks in PA is kidding themselves. Unless you have a large tract of private property to manage for just that, big bucks, I don't think you'll see the array of big bucks Alt is promising. For starters, there are simply too many hunters in this state. Look at it this way... if your figures are correct, and we harvested over 80% of the bucks carried from the previous year, we have 20% left. What do you think that 20% is mostly comprised of? Bucks that weren't legal from the year before. In most of the state, these bucks don't grow large racks overly fast. So, by the next year, they are mostly minimum legal bucks and get whacked by hunters because, of course, they are legal.

I'm not saying we arent' going to get a few more large racked bucks, but I just can't see us ever being an Illinois, Kansas type state the routinely produces Booners or even 150 class bucks for that matter.

Hope I'm wrong.

livbucks

IMO NO!
The changes in AR and the combining of the doe/buck season in many areas is designed to lessen the buck kill and increase the doe kill. Things are designed so that most people will shoot the first doe they see and go home. MANY people only hunt one day a year-opening day. I don't think you will see the buck harvest record being broken ever under the current system. That's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What you will see is some gigantic bucks coming out of PA in the next few years, but not earth shattering harvest numbers.

deaddeer

There is simply no reason to expect that to happen and here is why. The average buck saved due to AR will be smaller that the average pre-AR buck ,because the average 1.5 spke develops slower than the avg. 1.5 , 6 or 8 pt. Also, we are harvesting a much higher percentage of our 2.5 + buck due to AR ,so fewer will survive to become 3.5+ buck. We harvested 86% of the buck that were carried over from 2002 and most of the 2.5+ buck that survived were those that were not AR legal at 2.5. In addition, we are harvesting more of our buck as anterless deer,so fewer buck will survive to be protected by AR.

livbucks

That's alot of thinkin'!
One more twist....No more does.... No more bucks!
Sound plausible? All I know is the bucks have gotten steadily bigger in the last two years where I've seen them and I have a few wallhangers that I'm drooling over around this year. Never had that in any amount before, only that occasional monster that someone lucked out and stepped on in some elderly woman's overgrown backyard. I'm really pumped about my prospects for the first time in a while, from what I've seen.

deaddeer

Are you really saying that the bucks are getting bigger, or are you simply saying that there are more 2.5 + buck due to AR? Since the herd has not been reduced and the habitat has not changed, there really is no reason why 2.5 bucks would be any bigger than they were before AR.

livbucks

Bucks in general that I see. Before AR I would hunt season after season and the best buck I would see might be a 2.5. In the last season I saw many that I would consider to be near mature. I'm not that good at inventorying and aging every deer in the woods. What you call mature and what I call mature is the question. A 3.5 year old buck is a sight to see in the PA woods and I personally would like to see a few more. I actually wouldn't shoot a 2.5 year old deer anyway, so if AR was supposed to supply only 2.5 bucks, I don't think it goes nearly far enough.
I have tagged enough 1.5 and 2.5 bucks that I let them walk now, that's just me though. I'm not intent on filling a tag, I want my tag intact when I get a shot op. at one of the ones I've been seeing lately.